(In the Pangkor hotel that we stayed, lunch was great though but only if we were early to queue up. Those coming late had fewer things to eat. Lunch seemed to be so tasty after a “hard day at work” at the beach.)
Read Part 3 here
It was the 2nd day in Pangkor and frankly speaking, we started to get bored. The hotel room, the food and the pool were in a sorry state but then again, this is something we need to accept if we wanted some things to be free. Couple that with frequent blackouts and crowded beaches and it does not look too good. Having nothing much to do was however a blessing in disguise, we managed to catch up on our sleep.
The dinner was so-so and soon after dinner, we headed to the favourite coffee shop for beer. On the 2nd night, the beer-drinking crowd was bigger and there were plenty of things to talk about. My son tagged along and my wife somehow did not protest – she normally will not agree the “boss” following his daddy for drinking sessions for obvious reasons but this time, she did not mind.
There was the rain that night, so walking by the beach after drinking had to be “cancelled”. I probably had more than usual – something that I need to get over the boredom on the island.
(Dinner was not so bad but the squid sambal was not spicy enough for my taste. A big let down)
The next day, we were up early – it was the day we were leaving Pangkor. We had breakfast and spend time “clearing” up the room. There were “tonnes” of unwashed clothes to be packed and some of them were still wet. Thankfully we had extra plastic bags around to pack these wet clothes.
The tour guide has planned a trip around the island before we leave the island. With our luggage safely tucked in the Pangkor pink taxi, we headed to the first place in the tour – the “satay” factory, a must for anyone who is visiting the island. Compared to the last trip several years, the factory has indeed “improve” – it is more tuned for tourist visitors now.
Salted fish and other dry seafood items are the main attraction here but price-wise, my wife seems to defer the fact that the price is reasonable. Some of the items’ price is slightly expensive than in KL. After several rounds, we decided not to buy much except for those items that are “pure” Pangkor based.
(Plenty of things to see but not enough time to do so. Further, it started to drizzle after we reached this place)
Next in the “must” see an item in Pangkor is the Mini Great Wall of China – it was worth the visit but unfortunately, we did not have enough time to marvel at the interesting artwork on the temple grounds. Some of the guys managed to walk all the way up and then had a tough time walking down.
Others, the more devotional ones, spend quiet time praying inside the temple. Driving through the town, one cannot dismiss the fact that the houses are built very close and it does look very cramped. Some of the houses hardly had space for motorcycles to drive through. Space is indeed a big problem for the islanders.
(The main ride when in Pangkor – there were very impressive hill roads with deadly twists and turns but it posed no problem for the pink taxis)
We reached the jetty tired and hungry – a problem compounded by the fact that we had to carry extra bags and my son who got too tired to walk. We hoped to get a better ferry back and we almost missed the open space boat. The same type of ferry that we had when we left Lumut was waiting for us but due to the number of people in our group, the boat attendants agreed to leave us for the next boat.
And the next boat was an open space boat with an open deck at the rear. We dropped our luggage at the front of the boat and headed straight to the rear for photo-shooting and enjoying the cold sea breeze.
Once we reached Lumut, we were left on our own to look for lunch and shopping. We had time for lunch – good briyani rice but did not have any for shopping. Just enough time to grab some cheap souvenirs from one of the shops by the roadside before we spotted our buses for the journey back to KL. It was almost quiet when we were returning back to KL – most of us were sleeping (and me snoring very loudly, so my wife said).
It was almost 4 in the afternoon when we arrived at the office area – to conclude the trip was good but certainly, the hotel operators in Pangkor could have done more to make the trip more worthwhile. Perhaps the cheaper travel cost played a factor but still, it was not enjoyable at that level. We had better times in Port Dickson for far cheaper travel costs. Hopefully, things will be different in future.
Pingback: Personal Trip 101: Ipoh Family Day - Day 0 Detailed Planning